Berwick at war explored in Nov. 15 lecture

Sunday

Nov 11, 2012 at 3:15 AM

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine – From 1675 until the late 1720s, much of present-day Maine and New Hampshire were wracked by an Anglo-Indian conflict that devastated both the Native American and English communities in the region.

On a talk on Thursday, November 15, at 7:30 pm, Dr. Neill De Paoli will lead the audience on a historical and archaeological journey into the impact warfare had on the makeup, layout, and dynamics of old Berwick -- today’s Berwick, South Berwick and North Berwick.

Sponsored by the Old Berwick Historical Society, the program coincides with the upcoming 300th anniversary of the community’s formation when it separated from Kittery in 1713. A year-long series of public historical talks and walks to run throughout 2013 has been planned under a grant from the Maine Humanities Council. A new exhibit also opens this month in South Berwick Town Hall.

The upcoming lecture will be held at Berwick Academy’s Jeppesen Science Center on Academy Street, and the public is invited. Refreshments will be served by volunteers.

“Three hundred years ago, the community called Berwick was caught in the middle of inter-cultural warfare between the English and the Wabanaki natives,” explained DePaoli, a historical archaeologist who has directed archaeological projects in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, including a dig with the Old Berwick Historical Society during the past two years at a site on Oldfields Road in South Berwick. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Maine Community College.

DePaoli’s research has revealed a community under considerable economic, social, and psychological stress as the English responded to Native American attacks.

“Late 17th and early 18th century records from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts abound with references to the physical and economic toll that King Philip’s, King William’s and Queen Anne’s Wars took on Berwick,” DePaoli explained.

In October 1675, a large Wabanaki force attacked present-day South Berwick, killing nine settlers and garrison members and burning several homes and barns. King William’s War (1688-1697) was even more devastating, as the settlement was often under the threat of attack or was attacked. Most destructive was a 1690 raid in which a large force of Wabanaki warriors and French troops burnt more than 20 homes and a mill, and killed or captured 80 to 100 residents.

This and subsequent attacks here and on nearby settlements such as Dover, Kittery, and York left Berwick in dire straits.

In June of 1691, Francis Hooke of York reported to Massachusetts Bay officials that a Wabanaki war party had captured and occupied the garrison of Thomas Holmes (adjacent to today’s Counting House Museum) while other area garrisons were thinly manned or “breaking up.” Six years later, the selectmen petitioned the Bay government for help, and spoke of “burnt” or “Useless” saw mills, failed crops, and residents who were “generally Exceeding poor.”

In his talk, De Paoli pushes his study beyond the toll this Anglo-Indian conflict took in lives and property to explore the emotional and mental state of Berwick’s residents. He explores how victims of these attacks would have coped with personal injuries, captivity, and the loss of family members and friends. While historical records provide scanty outright evidence of the emotional strain that Berwick residents faced, close examination of wartime conditions coupled with modern examples of the psychology of civilian life during war has helped to paint a portrait of Berwick’s “community psyche.”

De Paoli delves into the emotional strain of disrupted lives as Berwick residents contended with frequent rumors of pending Wabanaki and French attacks. Life was difficult “in garrison,” where conditions were often uncomfortable and stressful due to crowded and noisy quarters, poor sanitation, shortages of personal belongings, food, and water, and illness.

De Paoli closes his presentation with a look at how Berwick and her neighbors adjusted to these unsettled and frightening times through the development of improved military tactics.

More information on the Counting House Museum and all the Old Berwick Historical Society’s programs is available at info@oldberwick.org, or by calling (207) 384-0000.